Gary Young completed the double in the Braintree Table Tennis League. He not only won the open singles, but also topped the individual averages, a feat much rarer than might be expected.

It’s only been achieved once in the last 14 years – in 2017, by Brandon Crouchman.

Young finished with a 100 per cent record from eight matches, something that has not been done since Kevin Gowlett in 2014.

He was stretched to four games three times, by Steve Pennell, Adam Buxton and Sam Burrows, and only once to five, by Victor Chan.

For most of the season it looked as if his teammate and predecessor as open singles champion Paul Davison would join him on 100 per cent but he slipped up against Sean Clift with only two matches left.

Paul Lucas, equal first in 2023 and fourth last year, jumps up one place to third. He lost three times, to Davison and twice to Young.

Matthew Brown in division two likewise waited until late in the season before he lost his unbeaten record. He had won everything in three or four games before Rev Matthews took the first two games off him – and stretched him to 12-10 in the fourth – at the end of February. Then in his next match lost to Natalie Dodd.

Of those who had played enough matches to qualify, Rev Matthews moved up from seventh to second and Dave Moles from sixth to third.

The averages are notable for the dominance of division winners Sudbury Wanderers, whose players finished fourth, sixth, ninth and 11th. In addition, Natalie Dodd, who did not play enough to qualify for this feature, won 11 out of 12.

Richard Fifield, in division three, was the only other player to remain undefeated. He joined Sudbury Strollers at the end of November and made the division sit up and take notice in his first outing when he won his three singles against league leaders Finchingfield A.

It was the first defeat of the season for John Barrett and the second for Peter Clark and Dave Punt.

Barrett and Clark finished in second and third places with Punt eighth. Encouragingly, two of the league’s youngest players made the top 10, 10-year-old Ethan Collins and Lucien Nolan-Bradford, 17, sharing fifth place.

Matthew Brown was one of seven players throughout the three divisions to play in every match. Sean Clift, Joe Meleschko, Karl Baldwin, Ian Shrubsole, Richard Taylor and Alastair Brown were the others.

Individual averages*, last season’s position in brackets (qualification one-third of team’s matches):

Division 1

1 (-) Gary Young 24 wins in 24 sets, average 100 per cent; 2 (3) Paul Davison 48-49, 97.9; 3 (4) Paul Lucas 51-54, 94.4; 4 (-) Adam Cuthbert 23-27, 85.2; 5 (7) James Hicks 42-51, 82.4; 6 (5) Andy Holmes, 30-37, 81.1; 7 (6) Adam Buxton 29-36, 80.6; 8 (2) Maria Boulton 38-48, 79.2; 9 (-) Luke Burridge 22-28, 78.6; 10 (10) Aron Jordan 24-32, 75; 11 (11) Scott Dowsett 29-39, 74.4; 12 (12) Oliver Hicks 27-40, 67.8; 13 (-) Karl Baldwin 33-53, 62.3; 14 (-) Jon Hill 14-23, 60.9; 15 (14) Ken Lewis 28-47, 59.6; 16 (-) Steve Noble 20-35, 57.1; 17 (18) James Mullane 21-37, 56.8; 18 (8) Alistair Hill 13-23, 56.5; 19 (16) Chris Parr 29-54, 53.7; 20 (-) Zach Harrington 25-51, 49.0.

Division 2

1 Matthew Brown 59-60, 98.3; 2 Rev Matthews 48-56, 85.7; 3 Dave Moles 35-42, 83.3; 4 Ian Shrubsole 47-58, 81.0; 5 Alesha Ellis-Austin 41-51, 80.4; 6 Louise Hartshorn 36-46, 78.3; 7 Roy Hooper 42-54, 77.8; 8 Adi Kamma 20-27, 74.1; 9 David Hitchen 17-23, 73.9; 10 Richard Whiteside 31-42, 73.8.

Division 3

1 Richard Fifield 30-30, 100; 2 John Barrett 41-43, 95.4; 3 Peter Clark 33-37, 89.2; 4 Stewart Grant 29-33, 87.9; 5= Ethan Collins, Lucien Nolan-Bradford 17-21, 80.9; 7 Peter Davenport 38-47. 80.9; 8 Dave Punt 32-40, 80; 9 Dave Montgomery 38-48, 79.2; 10 Steve Willis 44-56, 78.6

* Where a player has played for more than one team in the same division, all matches are counted.